About Me

“I shall now confess to you that none of those three trout had to be beheaded, or folded double, to fit their casket. What was big was not the trout, but the chance. What was full was not my creel, but my memory.” - Aldo Leopold; Sand County Almanac.

This quote by Aldo Leopold helps explain why I make my exquisite bamboo fly rods: they are to be used to create memories of time spent on the water... enjoying the feel of a perfectly balanced rod, fishing with family and friends, soaking up the sights and sounds of running water or lapping waves... When your time on the water is limited, you want it to be quality time. So why not fish a custom bamboo rod?

I started handcrafting bamboo fly rods in 1993. What began as an interest in fishing bamboo fly rods in 1990 has developed into the F. D. Kretchman Rod Co. - maker of classic split bamboo fly rods.

My first exposure to bamboo rods was as a boy, fishing with my dad for bass and bluegills. He would gracefully cast small poppers or rubber spiders with a Heddon “President” cane rod which was a college graduation gift from his family. It was exciting to see the fish take his flies on the surface: often with an aggressive splash. In the 4th grade, I received my first fly rod: a fiberglass Shakespeare Wonderod. As the years progressed, I continued to enjoy fly fishing…it was the “gentle sport”, filled with memories of fishing with my dad, casting over misty waters at dawn, or teasing bedding bluegills with those unsinkable rubber spiders.

I was introduced to trout fishing in the mid-sixties by a friend who took my dad and I to Grayling, Michigan, and the famous Big Manistee River. We fished the big drake hatches in the evening and after dark- seeking predatory brown trout. During the day, I’d probe the mucky backwaters for brookies- the prettiest fish I’d ever seen. Years later, while living in Oregon, I fished for trout, salmon, and steelhead with a fly. Those were magical years for me, filled with memories of trout ponds in the Cascades, coastal rivers teaming with fall salmon, frigid winter days angling for finicky steelhead while trying to keep the guides from freezing up...

Then in 1990, while salmon fishing in the Fall with a friend in New Hampshire, I watched him cast an old bamboo fly rod with such grace that I asked if I could cast it myself. Within minutes, I was sold on the superior qualities of bamboo and decided to find a cane rod for myself. At a country auction, I bought a Heddon bamboo rod for $72. It was a joy to cast compared to graphite and helped to convince me of the magical qualities of bamboo. After fishing bamboo rods for several years, I came to the realization that each rod was uniquely suited to it’s own niche. Some cast well in close, but not farther out. Others were too long or heavy to enjoy casting all day. This led me to the realization that I would have to make my own rods to satisfy the yearning to have the “perfect” rod for the many varied conditions and types of fishing.

Watch the lifecycle of a Kretchman Fly Rod, from construction to cast. A wonderful video put together by the great crew at WCSH-6 and their program "207". Special thanks to Rob Nesbitt, Kathleen Shannon, and Rob Caldwell. Watch the video above.